Seismic environment of ancient Egyptian cultures

Seismic environment of ancient Egyptian cultures, with emphases on the predynastic era and on extensional tectonics

Eric R. Force

The distinctive and complex ancient Egyptian civilization, certainly one of the greatest in antiquity, endured for over 2500 years.  One of its peculiar features is its cultural conservatism over this long time period, noted by many authors.  A possible relation of this conservatism to its tectonic quiescence has been addressed by a few of them, including myself (Force 2015).

Two bodies of information of which I was previously unaware inform this posting.  One is the growing literature on predynastic cultures of both Upper and Lower Egypt, pertinent to any original cultural adaptations to Egypt’s tectonic environments.  The other is a growing awareness of peculiar tectonic activity in the Luxor-Thebes-funerary valleys area of Upper Egypt.  This latter I previously treated as a single exceptional event in antiquity (Force 2015 p. 50), but in an overall pattern of Egypt’s tectonic quiescence—a pattern that is unlike that of other ancient complex cultures (noted also in the review by Robinson 2015). 

Egypt’s ancient complex cultures are along the Nile River and its delta, and this valley in Egypt and Sudan is not on a tectonic plate boundary.  The valley itself has not been subject to large earthquakes.  A transtensional plate boundary between African and Arabian plates follows the Red Sea but extends up its Gulf of Aqaba arm and becomes the transcurrent Dead Sea Rift.  Moderate seismic activity is common along the Red Sea and its Gulf of Suez arm (Ambraseys et al. 1994, Badawy 2005).  This locus is about 200 km to the east of the Nile (except at its Qena bend where it can be as little as 100 km away).  However, an extension of this locus as moderate extensional seismic activity crosses into Lower Egypt near Cairo.  Here soil conditions allow liquifaction, increasing the risk of damage (El-Araby and Sultan 2000).  Lower Egypt also commonly “feels” strong earthquakes in the Mediterranean, and coastal delta communities are at risk of tsunami from that direction (Ambraseys et al. 1994, Stanley and Jorstad 2005).  Historical earthquakes thought by Ambraseys to have epicenters near the Nile include those of 1847, 1974. and 1992 in Lower Egypt and 1981 in Upper Egypt; he dismisses or relocates many others.  In summary there is evidence from neither tectonic theory nor historic record to associate ancient Egyptian cultures with strong pervasive seismicity.

New views of predynastic cultures

Prior to the unification of ancient Egypt as one state about 3100 B.C., Lower and Upper Egypt were distinct entities, at times separated by the stretch of Nile between almost 27 and 29 degrees north latitude.  Recent work (Davies and Friedman 1998, Brewer 2005, Cialowicz 2008) has shown they were quite different—in contact for some easily portable trade items but without much cultural influence. 

Predynastic Lower Egypt, much of it in the delta, was in some contact with Canaan and Mesopotamia, but the degree of this contact varied, from moderate in the early part of the 4^th millennium B.C. (Faltings 1998, 2002), to insignificant in a following period that lasted over a hundred years.  Literature at my disposal suggests that Lower Egypt in this period remained a rather simple culture, trading with the Levant presumably by sea, but without many of the coeval features of cultural complexity there. 

Predynastic Upper Egypt, centered first in Hierakonpolis (Friedman 2017) from about 3500 B.C. was a relatively complex culture, boasting public works, religious architecture, and exquisite ceramic and stone vessels, gold artwork, and chipped-stone artifacts (Davies and Friedman 1998). Contact with SW Asia was via overland routes to the Red Sea (Brewer 2005).   Some local traditions initiated in this region persisted literally for millenia, and are quite distinctive. 
The takeover of Lower Egypt by Upper Egypt, probably about 3100 B.C., is attested both archaeologically (Cialowicz 2008) and symbolically (via the Narmer Palette, etc.).  Thus began the era of a unified Egyptian state that persisted through antiquity, on occasion with different ethnic rulers but remarkably similar customs. 

The separate evolutionary paths of Upper and Lower Egypt through the predynastic period suggest primary (“ pristine”) cultures despite some sporadic contact with each other and the outside world.  Some of the characteristic features of the long-lived Egyptian civilization were established in predynastic Upper Egypt, and many more in the first few dynasties of the Old Kingdom, i.e. latest Stone Age to earliest Bronze Age. 
Tectonic influences on settlement and culture are commonly apparent in these early stages of complex cultures. However, I cannot say that I see any such influences in the case of Egypt. 

Paleoseismicity and possible relation to extensional tectonics

In 2015 I referenced the work by Karakhanian et al. (2010), who presented evidence of an earthquake in the New Kingdom era at Luxor.  I did not, however, treat this event as part of a regional pattern.  Several lines of evidence suggest this approach be taken now.

Several suggestions of ancient earthquakes in Upper Egypt remain unsubstantiated.  However, the evidence of Karakhanian  et al. (2010) for an ancient earthquake seems persuasive; it consists of damage and ancient restoration of the Colossi of Amenhotep III, ancient liquifaction exposed in trenches around that temple, and regional disturbances as described below.  They propose a local earthquake of magnitude about 6 between about 1200 and 900 B.C. based on paragenesis of damage relative to archaeologic features of known age, and radiometric dating of disturbances exposed in trenches.  Much of this period is one of very little written record in Egypt’s history (21 and 22^nd dynasties e.g. Davies and Friedman 1998).

Ancient ground disturbances were noted by Karakhanian et al. (2010) throughout the Thebes-Luxor area.  In addition, listric faulting of Tertiary sedimentary sections was observed by both Cobbald et al. (2008) and Karakhanian et al. (2010) throughout the entire funerary valley area of several square kilometers on the NW bank of the Nile opposite Luxor.  Relations between normal faults and funerary features described by Karakhanian et al. (2010) suggest faulting about 1150 B.C.  However, it is unclear whether these faults are better described as huge landslides or crustal extensional features.  This evidence of local ancient tectonic activity matching intense ancient cultural activity is intriguing. 

With this activity in mind it is worth revisiting patterns of more recent and modern seismicity of Egypt.  The Thebes/Luxor area is on the southern stretch of the Qena bend of the Nile, the largest such bend in Egypt.  Thus the river is locally oriented NE-SW, parallel to the strike of listric faulting documented by Cobbald et al. (2008) and Karakhanian et al. (2010).  Other faults with this trend along this stretch of river are known (e.g. El-Araby and Sultan 2000), and some seismicity of transcurrent type has been recorded there (Badawy 2005).  Within 200 km to the south of this stretch is a zone of recorded seismicity and east-west faults (El-Araby and Sultan 2000).  A series of small earthquakes occurred in 2003/4 within 50 km to the south (Badawy et al. 2006) where almost none had been recorded before.  The distribution and temporal pattern of Egypt’s historic seismicity varies widely (Badawy 1999).  Thus there seems no reason to doubt that the Thebes/Luxor/funerary valley area was subject to some sporadic seismicity in antiquity.

Conclusions

Ancient Egyptian civilization as a whole must still be viewed in a nearly quiescent tectonic environment.  The evidence presented here for the Thebes/Luxor area is intriguing, as it forms part of a pattern for upper/middle Egypt.  But mid-plate settings commonly have tectonically active locales.  For ancient settlements along the Nile, only Lower Egypt and a small part of Upper Egypt likely experienced seismic activity, mostly moderate. 

New work on the character of predynastic culture of Upper Egypt emphasizes its primary nature in a mostly-quiescent tectonic environment. The relation between cultural conservatism and tectonic quiescence noted for many ancient cultures (Force 2015) still seems valid in view of evidence for Egypt presented here—indeed Egypt is probably still the best example of this relation.  However, ancient Egypt’s emergence as an exceedingly complex culture in a quiescent tectonic environment remains unusual. 

References

Ambraseys, N. N., Melville, C. P., and Adams, R. D., 1994, The seismicity of Egypt, Arabia, and the Red Sea:  Cambridge Univ. Press.

Badawy, A., 1999, Historical seismicity of Egypt:  Acta Geodetica et Geophysica Hungarica, v. 34, p. 119-135.

Badawy, Ahmed, 2005, Seismicity of Egypt: Seismological Research Letters, v. 76, p. 149-160. 

Badawy, A., Abdel-Monem, S. M., Sakr, K., and Ali, Sh. M, 2006, Seismicity and kinematic evolution of middle Egypt:  Journal of Geodynamics v. 42, p. 28-37.

Brewer, D. J., 2005, Ancient Egypt: foundations of a civilization:  Pearson-Longman, London

Cialowicz, K. M., 2008, The nature of the relation between Lower and Upper Egypt in the Protodynastic period—a view from Tell El-Farkha, in Egypt at its Origins II, B. Midant-Reynes and Y. Tristant, eds., p. 501-513.

Cobbold, Peter, Watkinson, John, and Cosgrove, John, 2008, Faults of the pharoahs:  Geoscientist v. 18 #6. (online only at geosoc.org.uk/gsl/site/GSL/lang/en/page 3994.html).

Davies, Vivian, and Friedman, Renee, 1998, Egypt Uncovered:  New York: Stewart Tabori and Chang

El-Araby, Hesham, and Sultan, Mohamed, 2000, Integrated seismic risk map of Egypt: Seismological Research Letters v. 71, p. 53-66.

Faltings, Dina, 1998, Canaanites at Buto in the early Fourth Millenium BC:  Egyptian Archaeology, v. 13, p. 29-32.

Faltings, Dina, 2002, The chronological frame and social structure of Buto in the Fourth Millenium BCE, in Egypt and the Levant:  interrelations from the 4^th through the early 3^rd Millenium B. C. E.,  C. M. Van den Brink and T. E. Levy, eds. , p. 165-170.

Force, E. R., 2015, Impact of tectonic activity on ancient civilizations: recurrent shakeups, tenacity, resilience, and change:  Lexington Books.

Friedman, Renee, 2017, City of the hawk, in Egypt—treasures, sites, and ancient culture:  Archaeology Magazine special issue Egypt, p. 40-46. 

Karakhanian, A., et al. 2010, Archaeoseismological studies at the temple of Amenhotep III, Luxor, Egypt, in Ancient earthquakes, Sintubin, M. et al., eds.: Geological Society of America Special Paper 471, p. 199-222. 

Robinson, Andrew, 2015, Geophysics: vast forces underfoot:  Nature v. 528, p. 35-36.  

Stanley, D. J., and Jorstad, T. F., 2005, The 365 A.D. tsunami destruction of Alexandria, Egypt:  Geol. Soc. America Abstracts, v. 37, p. 75